


Halloween Is Barely Over. Are You Kidding Me?

by screamssetonfire



Series: Ficmas 2017 [1]
Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Decorations, F/M, Fluff, Halloween, Thanksgiving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-15 06:11:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13024929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/screamssetonfire/pseuds/screamssetonfire
Summary: Your neighbor is blasting Christmas music the week after Halloween and, by Thanksgiving, you're completely fed up and go to tell him to quiet down.





	Halloween Is Barely Over. Are You Kidding Me?

You sighed, letting your head fall back against the cushions of the couch behind you.

It was the week after Halloween, you were still consuming leftover candy, for god's sake, and the idiot next door, Collin or whatever his name was, was already blasting Christmas music.

Not that him blasting music was an issue, you’d been known to crank yours up while cooking or cleaning, but did it really have to be Christmas music already? There was a whole other holiday between Halloween and Christmas that this guy seemed to be skipping over.

You decided to let it slide for now, hoping that it was just a burst of early holiday excitement and it would die down in a week or so and pick back up at an acceptable time.

~~~

Turns out that Collin next door was not going to lose his premature holiday cheer.

It was now 3 days before Thanksgiving and he’d been playing Christmas music at varying volumes almost constantly and had now been blasting Jingle Bell Rock for an hour and a half on repeat.

Finally having had enough, you jumped up off your couch, pulling on your hoodie and making your way to the door, fully prepared to go smash his radio if he didn’t agree to turn down his music until at least Friday.

You stomped out of your apartment, slamming the door behind you, and walked across the hall to the offender’s apartment.

Slamming your fist on the door hard enough that you could be sure he heard it, you abruptly heard the music stop. The door flew open a few seconds later, revealing a tall, tanned skinned boy in an ugly Christmas sweater and a Santa hat, a length of tinsel garland wrapped around his neck like a scarf.

You stared blankly at the boy, not really sure you were actually seeing a grown adult wearing all this and hoped like hell he was decorating his apartment and not just dressed like this for the hell of it.

“Hey!” He said in a thick Australian accent, smiling brightly at you. “You live across the hall, right?”

Shaking yourself out of the trance, you pulled your hoodie tighter around yourself.

“Uh, yeah. Listen, Collin, it’s great that you’re  _ clearly _ in the Christmas spirit and all that, but do you think you can turn down the music a bit? It’s not even Thanksgiving yet. How about celebrating that before you start rocking your jingle bells at all hours of the day, huh?”

“Calum.”

“What?” You said, not quite sure what he was talking about.

“My name is Calum, not Collin.”

“Right, well regardless of your name, can you please just hold off on the cheer til you’ve had your Thanksgiving festivities? You can put your stereo at full blast against my door at 12:01 am on Friday for all I care if you give me 3 days of peace.”

“I am so sorry! You should have told me sooner! I feel like such a jerk now. I'm not turning it completely off, but I’ll at least keep it down low enough that you can't hear it.” Calum said, looking a bit saddened by your level of holiday excitement not being where his was.

“Fine. Thanks.” You turned back towards your apartment, hearing the click of Calum’s door shutting behind you, planning on basking in your newly acquired silence with a long, hot bath.

You grabbed the door handle, quickly realizing that the door was locked. Patting your pockets, a small panic crept up as you realized you had locked yourself out.

“Great.”

Pulling your phone out, you called your sister for your spare set of keys.

“Hello?”

“Hey, sis. You still have a spare key for my place, right?” You said, leaning against the door.

“I do. Why?”

“Well, I went to yell at my neighbor for blasting Christmas music and locked myself out. Do you think you could run over and let me in?” You asked hopefully.

“I would love to, but unfortunately Josh and I have already left for his parents house. You can go ahead and run to my place and grab them though.”

“Leslie… I locked all my keys in the house. Including the car keys.” You explained, sighing and sliding down the door to sit on the floor.

“Call the landlord then. I’m sorry, but I clearly can’t help you.”

“That’s gonna take ages! I’m locked out. I’m sitting in the hallway. I don’t have any of my stuff with me besides my phone. I can’t even go do something in the meantime.”

“Well I can’t help. I gotta go. Call that landlord.”

The line disconnected.

You set the phone down on the floor next to you and buried your hands in your face, letting out a scream of frustration.

“Now who’s making a ton of noise.” You heard above you.

Lifting your head up, you see Calum once again standing in his doorway, smirking at you with his arms crossed.

“Sorry. I, uh, I kinda locked myself out in my haste to come shout at you.” You said, staring up at him.

“That’s what you get for being such a Scrooge.” Calum said, smugly.

“Listen, buddy…” You said, starting to get annoyed with him again.

“I’m messing with you. Do you have a spare key?” He laughed.

“My sister has one at her place, but not only is she halfway to her in-laws, but I locked my car keys and her house keys in my apartment. I’ve gotta call the landlord to come let me in, which is gonna take hours, I’m sure.”

“I mean, if you want, you can wait in my place until he gets here. I know I’m not your favorite person right now, but my friends and I ordered some pizza and I’ve got beer. You’re more than welcome to have some.” Calum said, gesturing over his shoulder with his thumb towards his apartment.

You looked up at him from your place on the floor, narrowing your eyes a bit.

“Are you telling me there’s more of you in there?”

“If you mean more Australians, yes. I can assure you though that I don’t have clones.” Calum laughed again. “It’s up to you. We’ve still got some ornaments left to hang and, if you’re willing to fight Luke for it, you can even put the star on top of the tree.”

“Australian.” You said, standing up off the floor. “That explains why you’re so early with the Christmas spirit. Thanksgiving isn’t a thing for you.”

“Nope. Not really. It’s kinda a thing now that we’re all living in the US, but it’s mostly just us eating chicken fingers instead of pizza for a day.”

“Sounds exciting.” You said, starting towards his door. “I suppose I can sit in your apartment til the landlord gets here.”

“Awesome. The guys are kinda overwhelming, but I promise they’re harmless.”

“Sure, sure. Lemme just call the landlord and I’ll be right in.” You pulled your phone out, dialing the landlord’s number. “Oh… and I’ll take tea if you have it.” You added as an afterthought.

“Absolutely. Just wander in when you’re done.” He disappeared into his apartment, closing the door behind him.

The landlord was less than thrilled to have to come out and let you into your place, but he assured you he’d be there in about an hour. Having let him know to knock on Calum’s door when he got there, you opened Calum’s door and walked into his apartment.

You suspected he’d been decorating, but you hadn’t expected decoration to this degree.

The entire entryway was strung with lights. Zigzagging across the ceiling, wrapped around the legs of the small table, clipped around the doorframe.

“Holy. Shit.”

“Oh good. I was beginning to think you’d decided to stay in the hallway after all. I’ve got your tea almost done in here.” Calum said, popping his head out of the kitchen. “Have a seat in the living room. I’ll bring it out to you. Milk and sugar?”

“Just plain.” You said, wandering further into the apartment, knowing the layout by heart as it was a mirror image of your’s.

The copious amounts of lights carried into the living room. For whatever reason, they appeared to be the only source of light in the entire room. It cast a strange club-like glow across everything.

Three boys, presumably the friends Calum had mentioned earlier, all wearing varying degrees of Christmas gear, were around the tree. 

You sat yourself on the couch as Calum came into the room, tray of mugs in hand.

“Here you are. Tea, plain.” He said, handing you a mug.

“Thanks. The landlord said it’d be about an hour.” You said, taking the mug with a small smile.

“No problem. Hang out as long as you need to.” He turned towards the guys around the tree, pointing to each one in turn. “That’s Luke, Michael, and Ashton.”

The boys looked up from the task at hand, waving to you excitedly, before noticing the mugs on the table and all moving to grab one, assorted sentiments of thanks thrown in Calum’s direction.

~~~

An hour later, you’d finished your tea and learned a decent amount about the boys.

They’d moved to the US to try their hand at a music career and, thus far, didn’t seem to be having any luck beyond small shows in bars around the city. They seemed happy with the bit of notoriety they’d gotten through.

As you were listening to Luke tell a story about their time back in Australia, there was a knock at the door. Calum stood up, making his way to answer it.

You followed him, hoping it was the landlord finally here to let you into your place.

Thankfully it was.

“Door is unlocked for you.” The landlord said, nodding his head at you.

“Thanks. I’m sorry you had to come all the way out here this late.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just don’t lock yourself out again.” He turned and headed down the stairs, muttering about ‘stupid tenants locking themselves out of the damn apartment’.

“He’s an ever glowing ball of sunshine.” Calum said, looking after the man.

“Yeah. He’s always like that.” You replied. “Well, thanks for letting me hang here. It was actually surprisingly entertaining.”

“No problem. Feel free to lock yourself out and hang out here anytime.”

“I can’t see that becoming a regular thing, but it’s good to know I have a place to sit besides the hallway.” You stepped around him to go back into your apartment, ready for a long night of sleep.

Just as you got to your door, you turned around, a thought popping into your head.

“Hey. I know you guys don’t really do Thanksgiving, but chicken fingers isn’t really any way to spend a holiday. Maybe you and your friends want to come over here for dinner? I mean, I was planning on going to my mom’s but since my sister is out of town, my mom decided we weren’t doing anything. I can make a small turkey and some sides. You guys can get a taste of a real American Thanksgiving.” You said, looking at him hopefully.

“Only if you come over here on Christmas so we can show you how we do Christmas in Australia.” Calum said. “And maybe let me take you out for coffee to make up for annoying you for the past month?”

“I think that’s fair.” You said, smiling at him now.

“Awesome. See you Thursday then, neighbor.”

“Absolutely.”

Maybe Christmas music in November wasn’t so bad after all.


End file.
